Search This Blog

Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

The Search For Ozo & The Rest.

I had called Mike Egi, compiler of Flashback 1 & 2 a couple of days ago to see if he made it back from his trip to Naija on an expedition to dig out master tapes of 70s local ensembles that kept body and soul one. Mike had told me his journey was very "disappointing" and somehow was not worth the trip.

He trooped to Pound Road, Aba, and according to him the road was so bad it took more than two hours to drive through a couple of miles. He had gone there to look for original albums of the Wings, The Apostles, Action and many other old-school jams of the day. We talked for nearly two hours on the phone and it was quite engaging. I had written a piece in the past about these old school jams and that's how we hooked up. Mike lives in St. Paul.

For a while now, I have been searching for some of these rare LPs. I have digged every archive but could only be that lucky. Some are there, some not. Mike also noted how bad in shape these 70s musicians were when he ran into them. Drummer Ben Alaka was so bad in shape and could not remember the songs he made in his heydays playing gigs at Lido, in Warri.

I had asked Mike if he was able to find the group Ozo whose 70s "Listen to the Buddha" album was a smash hit. "No where to be found," according to him. Ozo was a group founded by Igbo born Keni Saint George who later went solo and produced Asaba. Just browsing, I stumbled into this rare track here, and in shock I clicked on the album version of the track "Anambra" which echoed taking me aback to the groovy days all compositions and arrangements were original. Not even the all-flavor vintage Paris DJs founded by Djouls and Grant Phabao has it in stock. I give it to them, though. Those kids are doing a hell of a job remixing and digitally waxing all African vintage songs they can lay their hands on.

The album "Listen to the Budhha" was produced by Keni St. George and Vernon Cummings and recorded at DJM Records in 1976. Tracklisting: 1) Listen to the Budhha, 2)You Better Run, 3) Kites, 4) Anambra, 5) Love Me Tomorrow, 6) Who Shot Him Down, 7) Times-A-Changing, 8) Love is Gone, 9) Realms.

Mike's Flashback 3 will be out soon and I hope this time around, the track "Anambra" and "Listen to the Budha" will be included. Listen to the music. There's a message in it.

Comments

This album I am told featured Mick Wayne of Junior's Eyes/ Early Bowie/ Early Pink Fairies/ and other general 60s Ladbroke Grove goings on etc. Sometimes it pops up for sale on www.musicstack.com I hope this helps, best wishes, Fleas

I think I must have stumbled upon this rare album somewhere recently. I will check again. I know if I run through my tapes I am likely to find it, not in pristine condition but at least listenable too. I loved the track "Who Shot him down?" BTW, another rare album is the one and only by a group called 90 Degrees Inclusive, one of the creations of Eddy Grant (as with the Equals). I have the album, but the amount of akara it fries is frightening.

I was in Ozo in the early 1980's. We recorded many of the tracks at Utopia Studios in Belsize Park and Rak studios in Charlbert Street with Ray Shell (later of Starlight Express fame) and John Mizzarolli

I probably still have many of the albums and 12" records plus a lot of rough takes on cassette.

Very, very interesting to know what you are revealing. Can please shed more light because Ozo was one of my favorite groups back in the day. What happened to St. George? Let's hook up as it appears something interesting is about to pop up, and the tapes, I don't mind.

I haven't seen Keni in over 25 years. I did some session work for Ozo and a couple of other of Keni's bands. We even made a video for two tracks 'Anambra River' and another track called 'Skintight'. I still have the VHS tape - not much to look at these days. I was really shocked to learn that JJ Belle had passed away in 2004 - he was such a fine guitarist.

I do not know of anyone that knows the whereabout of Keni. How was playing together with Keni ina jam session like back in the day. I think "Anambra River" was my favorite track althoug when we were growing up, "Listen to the Budha" was the jam in college dorms and social gatherings.

Thought Keni went solo and released "Asaba" in the 80s. I remember JJ Belle but never heard of his death. Thanks for all these important information that will eventually go into the archives when I'm done with my research. And thanks for the email and the website on your new project. I will be writing you in detail soon.

Found some posts of interest....http://www.nowimyourblog.com/2009/04/ozo-anambra-12-version.htmlhttp://funkclassicmaster.blogspot.com/2009/03/ozo-dreaming-1984.htmlhttp://hittheudio.blogspot.com/2009/03/ozo.html

Keni St George is my father, im his daughter Hannah. My family havent seen Keni for around 14 years now but we have lots of his records including Listen to the Buddha. If you leave me your email details I will see what I can do in terms of getting copies. I'll check this site soon for any replies.

Apologies for not replying sooner. I have read your post from time to time but find it quite painful to speak of my father since I have not seen or heard from him in so many years. Please google Keni St George and you'll find an article written 17 May of this year by a Nigerian newspaper ("I'm a spiritual dissident"). He goes by a new name mostly, Keni Abdullahi St George, hence why you may not have found him. You should be able to find out where he is through the reporter and make contact as to requesting music that way. Please don't sensationalise the man. Although I can see his music was loved, he left 4 children destitute being myself, Alexandra, Eliza and Zen. Conrary to the lies in the article, Keni vanished into thin air leaving his family and massive debts behind him. I thank God every day for my angel mother and everything she has done for us.

Igbo Journal Review

BIAFRA

Translate

Popular Posts

On Easter Monday, as we usually called it back home, I was invited by a good friend over dinner and some drinks, and some talks. While we ate and drank, we talked about a whole lot of stuff including the new arrivals on the book shelves -- Caught Between Hitler & Stalin; From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women; A Constitution of Many Minds: Why the Founding Document Doesn't Mean What It Mean Before; Founders: The People Who Brought You A nation; ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody; The political Worlds Of Slavery And Freedom; Nazi Germany and the Jews; The Black Death; Engaging The Muslim World; Hitler's Pope; Captives and Countrymen: Barbary Slavery and the American Public; The Irony of American History; Adolf Eichman and many other books that just arrived on the shelves, particularly about the Holocaust. He is disgusted with Nd'Igbo and why nobody is writing with regards to the pogrom.

LAGOS, NIGERIA (THE NEW GONG)--Afrika Shrine - The Shrine - was the central concept around which Fela Anikulapo-Kuti organized his show business and at the same time expressed his art and his politics. The routine consisted essentially of three shows a week: Friday, Gbegbegbe (noise-making) night, which featured only music and none of the political jibes and outrageous jokes he was known for; Saturday, Comprehensive Show, which featured the famous yabis sessions when Fela called things by their name in the tradition of African night spirits, sometimes pleasing and outraging the audience at the
same time; and Tuesday, Ladies Night, when ladies were allowed in free.

Fela would usually speak for between five and 20 minutes, depending on his mood, passing comments on current events, trading barbs with the audience or abusing the forever inept authorities. But on this particular…

I’m not sure if I should say one is now hooked to Nigerian movies, the Nollywood and fourth-ranked movie industry on the Planet. I have been watching quite a lot lately but I do have a problem with the plots and the titles. They all seem to be the same. Like “Girls Cot” which marks the genuine return of Genevieve Nnaji after a long sabbatical. It has the same resemblance of Nollywood’s previous projects which much appears they have ran out of stories and better creative stuff.

Nollywood should come out bold and start telling stories of human events and tragic moments of our time and beyond. Like Hollywood’s “Shindler’s List,” “We Were Soldiers,” “Pearl Harbor,” "Gangs of New York," “Platoon,” “Hotel Rwanda,” “The Pianist,” “The Holocaust,” “Flags of Our Fathers,” “Letters From Iwo Jima,” “Malcolm X,” “Amistad,” and many more films of that nature, it would be worthy of Nollywood to start producing movies in the same manner with scenes like “Blood on the Niger,” "Aba Mar…

It was a weekend of a two weeks event which climaxed the Summer and folks from all walks of life had trooped in to get a feel of motherland Africa which has been since its inception -- the stuff of life and a great stuff of African cultural heritage. It is, in fact, the stuff of great literature.

Once more, the event took me aback to the days of Orie Amigwe, the once notable marketplace for second hand clothes, produce from organics, poking around and bargains for better deals haggling for money and things like that when a plundered and demolished Igbo nation had begun to start life anew after Yakubu Gowon's-led Genocidal campaign against a desperately starved Igbo children including infants and women.

But somehow the 2008 African Marketplace and Cultural Faire was a unique event considering an economy that has gone so bad and people are still happy at a time of going through the pains of hopelessness was very obvious. Sitting on the playgrounds of Dorsey High Scho…

When the framers of the Constitution created the process for Congress to impeach “all civil officers of the United States,” they rejected a much more severe punishment practiced in early America: exile.

That threat was real in the early colonial period. In 17th-century New England, Puritan authorities banished individuals who challenged their rule. Those who challenged orthodox religious teaching or the administration of the colonies found themselves sent to other colonies or, on occasion, to England.

Three cases – the lay minister Anne Hutchinson, Rhode Island founder Roger Williams and the thrice-exiled lawyer Thomas Morton – reveal that the founders understood the difference between actions that posed a threat to the state and those that required less severe punishment, even when the crimes had been committed by those holding high political office.

Makoko is a slum neighborhood located in Lagos, Nigeria. At present its population is considered to be 85,840; however, the area was not officially counted as part of the 2007 census and the population today is considered to be much higher. Established in the 18th century primarily as a fishing village, much of Makoko rests in structures constructed on stilts above Lagos Lagoon. Today the area is essentially self-governing with a very limited government presence in the community and local security being provided by area boys. The government of Lagos State commenced the demolition of the shanty settlement on Monday , 16th July 2012 after giving the residents a 72 hour eviction notice. Thousands of the settlers were affected by this government action. This is the end of over 100 years of settlement by this community. (SOURCE: WIKI)

Female hawker paddling canoe and selling garri in the Makoko slums of Lagos which is being demolished by the Lagos State Government after a 72-hour eviction n…

In August 2006, Namibian model Venantia Otto celebrates when she was announced the winner of the Nokia Face of Africa competition held in South Africa.

The show seems to be gaining ground as this years competition is said to be better and more attractive. According to the Sunday Standard Reporter which reported a week ago that "an unprecedented winner prize of USD 50 000 in cash and a three year modeling contract with Oluchi’s dynamic O Model Africa agency, the new season of Face of Africa is set to be the best yet!"

Venantia did it again. Her steps and walk at this year's Cannes Film Festival in France spoke volumes. Go Africa!

Earlier this year, newspapers around BiafraNigeria carried headlines about a crime syndicate, the Otokoto mafia, which spooked Owerri Township and its neighboring suburbs with acts of murder, mutilaton, and illegal human parts trafficking.

On January 23, 2003, Justice Chioma Nwosu Iheme, the presiding judge in Owerri in the Otokoto case, handed down judgment and condemned Chief Vincent Duru Otokoto, the patriarch of the Otokoto family, and six others to death.

Last week in Los Angeles, Maxwell Vincent Duru Otokoto, the first son of the convicted Chief Duru Otokoto, sat down with BiafraNigeriaWorld’s Los Angeles Bureau Chief, Ambrose Ehrim. According to Maxwell Otokoto, his father’s conviction was a set-up and conspiracy. This is the other side of the Otokoto story.

Nnamdi Azikiwe arriving at the Idlewild Airport, New York, from London July 05, 1959 to attend the United Nations Special Session on Africa. Image: Bettmann Collection

BY AMBROSE EHIRIM

In 1999, after the Jim Nwobodo bunch sold out the Igbo presidency lot, handing Alex Ekwueme a stunning defeat at the Jos primaries which gave Olusegun Obasanjo the upper hand for his party’s nomination as the flagbearer to the presidential elections, I said “the Igbo presidency is a mirage.” I made it patently clear again during the drive to Obasanjo’s reelection in 2003 that an Igbo mandate was still a mirage. Then, and again, when Obasanjo handpicked a bedridden Umaru Yar’Adua and a clueless Goodluck Jonathan PDP ticket, I said the Igbo mandate would continue to be a mirage. As it happened, a lucky Jonathan, who by accident succeeded Yar’Adua, who had succumbed to a long-hidden ailment, was tested when he ran on his own ticket in April 2011. Upon Jonathan’s swearing in to commence his first term as an…